Anandasangaree complains of step-motherly treatment

January 21, 2013, 12:00 pm

Continued from yesterday

Speech delivered by Mr. V. Anandasangaree at the Annual General Meeting of the TULF held at the party headquarters on 29-12-2012:

It is now very obvious that all forces joined together within Sri Lanka and outside to oust me from the political arena. Why should there be an organized campaign to oust me, soliciting the support of Tamils from all walks of life, is a thing I could not understand. What wrong have I done to my country and its people? I have not harmed anybody at anytime and served the country and its people with much devotion for more than half a century. It is not for me to say that, but I consider my defeat at the poll as a national disaster that will be felt by the Tamil People long after I am dead and gone and those responsible for it will have their regrets. Very soon the country as a whole will feel it and the Tamil People will feel left in the lurch like orphans. If the Tamil People had listened to my advice a lot of problems could have been solved . Selfishness of certain leaders did not permit the people to listen to me. Instead abuse had been showered on me in a demeaning manner far beyond a man’s limit of toleration. I was honoured with the honorary title of "Traitor" a term used in our country to insult a political opponent. Prabaharan also will go round the world like Yazir Arafath : said Anandasangaree in Parliament. The TNA regrets the decision of Tamil Nad Assembly to have Prabaharan arrested says Anandasangaree. The TNA condemn the sentence passed against Prabaharan for 200 years.

These three newspaper headlines clearly indicate what attitude I had towards Prabaharan. I never wanted Prabaharan to be destroyed even in my dreams. I only wanted a change in his activities. How did I became a traitor? Did I ever ask for positions during my 55 years in politics?. Did I ask for any concessions. I was offered nominated membership in Parliament, did I accept it ? When I was offered the Governorship of the North did I accept it? During my membership in Parliament from 1970 for a period of 18 years did I even get a piece of land? Who gave me the title of traitor and why?

If in your opinion or in the opinion of your party colleagues or intellectuals of your choice either locally or among the Diaspora, are all of the view that I am not a fit and suitable person to serve the Tamil Society, please tell me so, without any hesitation so that I can venture on my own to pursue my mission. If you or anyone in your team feels uncomfortable to accommodate me, one who had been in politics for over 50 year or Mr. Siddharthan who is in politics for over 30 years and a participant at the Thimpu talks, in the TNA please let us know. We neither want to ride on anybody’s back, nor will allow anybody to ride on our backs as well.

The role of the TULF in the TNA

On the 16th of January 2011 Valampuri carried a news items under the captions. "All Tamil parties should rally round under one banner to give pressure to the government" and Thinakkural on the same day carried a news item under the caption."The TNA contesting alone is not in the best interest of the Tamils. "These two captions were from statements issued by me. Further more Thinakkural carried a news item on 25th Nov. 2009 under the caption "Under one umbrella all Tamil speaking people will endeavour to win the political rights" this was from a joint statement signed by leaders of all Tamil Political Parties in Switzerland at which I also participated. These three news items very clearly show that the Tamil people want united action. These three statements are over one year and three years old respectively. What will the ordinary citizen thing about Tamil leadership.

Mr. R. Sampanthan appealed that the government and the International community should accept the verdict of the people of the North and the East. I do not want to comment on the verdict of the people but as far as the election in the North and East is concerned I have a few observations to make. Mr. R. Sampanthan, the leader of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi and its Parliamentary group leader has appealed that the government and the International Community should accept the verdict given by the people and also warns that otherwise the Tamil People will be pushed to the state of second class citizens. This statement is often heard in their circles during the elections only. Why did it occur to Mr. Sampanthan that they may not be acceptable to the government and the International Community? On the basis of the total votes his ITAK polled his claim is ridiculous. At the general election his party polled only 65,119 votes, which is only 9% of the total polled in the electoral district of Jaffna. Mr. Sampanthan’s party lost its credibility fully at the general election held in 2004, although he was crowing about that his party polled over 90%of the total votes polled in the Jaffna electoral district. Reference to the reports of the various election monitoring teams including those of the European Union and the Commonwealth, will reveal how fraudulently that election was held and how large scale impersonations and violations of election laws took place. Two local teams the PAFFRAL and the CMEV jointly demanded annulling of the elections held and wanted a fresh poll, which the Commissioner of Elections could not undertake without provisions for fresh poll in the election law. It is only under these circumstances that the ITAK won 22 of the 23 Tamil majority seats at the 2004 election. Further more the ITAK used the popular name "Tamil National Alliance" to hood wink the Tamil voters. With the split in the TULF in Feb.2004 the TNA either stood dissolved or became non junctional. The ITAK was utilized by the late Mr. S. P. Thamilselvan of the LTTE, to form a new alliance by the same name and gave two positions for the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi, two for TELO, one each for All Ceylon Tamil Congress and Premachandran’s EPRLF and retained the balance six positions for the LTTE. The ITAK won 22 seats and completed a full term of six years using the name Tamil National Alliance.

With the defeat of the LTTE on 18th of May 2009 the ITAK continued to function as TNA, until Parliament was dissolved in February 2010. The ITAK should have dissolved the TNA when they dropped the LTTE, the ACTC, two members from the TELO and some others from Vanni and Batticaloa, but continued to use that name at the last Parliamentary election as well. This is the mess the ITAK that calls itself the TNA is now in. The ITAK should be honest enough to give up calling itself TNA without misleading the Tamil people. The most unfortunate thing is that the true history of the TNA had been concealed and the innocent Tamil people are made to believe, knowingly or innocently, by some intellectuals, political analysts, university students, free lance journalists and many such others, that Tamils had no choice other than supporting the TNA at the election.To be continued tomorrow